The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who passed away at age 84, was regarded as among the most significant occupants of that office in the nation's history. Whereas many VPs had to settle for marginal or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised substantial influence during the presidency of George W Bush, so much so that he was frequently called as the "actual president".
Bush resented such a characterisation and stated the connection was more complex. He observed that Cheney was deferential, consistently addressing him in official appearances as the President, while he called him as Dick. Bush challenged even characterisations of their partnership as a team because it indicated that they were on equal footing. In spite of these denials, Cheney found the laidback president accommodating on a wide array of administrative determinations.
The Period Following the Attacks
At the head of a group of neo-conservatives that featured military head Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he strongly advocated the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. During of the 9/11 strike, Bush had been attending a meeting at a elementary school in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney assumed control, commanding the destruction of any unresponsive airplanes approaching the US Capitol.
Cheney said the assaults transformed him, leading him to become intent on retribution. Together with other neo-conservatives, such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a occupation of Afghanistan in an endeavor to capture Osama bin Laden. Cheney then strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq, although there was little proof of Saddam Hussein having involvement.
Debated Policies
He voiced no apologies about the armed intervention, in which an approximated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the waterboarding of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq invasion effort, which was based on misleading information repeated by Cheney, was the proper path to take. "It represented the correct action to do back then. I was convinced then and I maintain that stance now."
Yet even at the time, there were dissenting voices at a senior level about the poor management of Iraq. One of the White House's own special envoys to the area, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was dismissed from the role. "I witnessed, at a minimum," he later wrote "clear negligence, negligence, and unaccountability: in the worst case, lying, incompetence, and corruption."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not completely to blame for the Iraq invasion. Even before 9/11, Wolfowitz had advocated for similar measures. He had drafted a document detailing scenarios in which national priorities might be compromised (encompassing "availability of vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had contended that "the US should be positioned to operate alone when joint efforts cannot be orchestrated," particularly citing armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had assumed the presidency vaguely intent on executing what his predecessor had notably declined to do in 1991; remove Saddam. Subsequent to he had been sacked by the president, the Treasury head Paul O'Neill disclosed how, at the opening session of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had declared his plan of diminishing America's involvement in the regional tensions and mooted defense operations against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, convinced he had been responsible for a plot to assassinate his father, President George HW Bush, on a journey to Kuwait in 1993. He also resented that one of the biggest hotels in Baghdad had a floor mural with a portrait of his parent's face that everyone had to walk over.
Investigation Approaches
However it was Cheney who was among the most vehement supporting attacking Iraq, repeatedly referencing information documents that were either thin or entirely deceptive. He endorsed what the Bush administration euphemistically referred to as "intensive questioning", the employment of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Answering a Senate report in 2014 that found that no valuable data had resulted from the torture, Cheney rejected the conclusions as "loaded with crap". He stated to Fox News: "We instructed [the CIA] to establish protocols and put in place programmes to capture the individuals who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it was not repeated. That is precisely what they did and they deserve a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by detractors such as the Star Wars villain and the sinister presence, and by the notion that he was a dark force directing Bush. In the journalist's 2013 publication about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is reported as stating: "Is it me who is the sinister strategist in the background that remains unseen leave his lair? That is a effective way to work, truthfully."
Business Interests
Dispute over his business interests followed him through his period as VP. While he had minimal expertise in business but established relationships in defence, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was offered a position at Halliburton, one of the world's biggest energy conglomerates, in 1995 as chair and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's election partner for the executive branch. Controversially, during the military campaign, Halliburton was granted US contracts valued at multiple billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His yearly earnings during his time at the corporation grew from his quarter-million dollars when he was Pentagon chief to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a package worth in excess of $20m|twenty
